Ex-Infinity Ward Employees Join Respawn Entertainment

Former Infinity Ward lead designer Todd Alderman and several others have become the first known employees to join the newly founded game studio Respawn Entertainment.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Alderman joined Respawn Entertainment the same month he left Infinity Ward, and his new job title is Lead Game Designer. Lead Environment Artist Chris Cherubini, and Lead Animators John Paul Messerly and Mark Grigsby also joined the new group.

Software Engineer Rayme Vinson confirmed on his facebook profile he joined Respawn and programmer Jon Shiring confirmed via Twitter he will be joining the team, too.

Respawn is headed by Infinity Ward founders Jason West and Vince Zampella, who were both fired by Activision last month. The duo announced a new publishing deal with Electronic Arts through its partners program in early April.

It's expected several more former Infinity Ward employees will join Respawn. Since the firings of West and Zampella, 13 known employees have left the studio. While there are no details about what type of game Respawn plans to work on, West recently told IGN in an interview the studio will develop a "big blockbuster."

Activision acknowledge Infinity Ward has seen an exodus of employees, but the publisher remains confident in the studio saying there is a "deep bench" of talent remaining.